Einstein Experts for Media

Sanjeev Gupta, M.B.,B.S., M.D.

The Eleazar and Feige Reicher Chair in Translational Medicine, Einstein

Attending Physician, Medicine, Montefiore Health System

Stem cell researchCell therapyGene therapy

Liver diseases

Dr. Gupta is a pioneer in the development of cell therapy – treating disease by introducing healthy cells into the body. He has discovered various mechanisms for coaxing transplanted cells to attach to host tissue and multiply, paving the way for treating health problems such as high cholesterol, hemophilia, liver failure, and hepatitis.

Dr. Gupta has successfully manipulated human stem cells to generate liver cells and defined some of the fundamental ways by which gene expression is regulated in stem cells. Dr. Gupta serves as an expert for the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, U.S. Department of Defense, Wellcome Trust, and national scientific bodies in over ten countries.

In the 1990s, Dr. Gupta contributed to the first ever clinical trial of a cell/gene therapy for familial hypercholesterolemia (high cholesterol), which results from a gene defect. He also showed that Wilson’s disease (a genetic condition characterized by excessive accumulation of copper in the liver and brain) could potentially be cured by use of cell therapy.